6 replies to this topic

[AntsAreUs]

First I'd like to give credit to Barristan for showing me this setup. Anyway fruit flies are attracted to light so they will climb up the cup. You should have a funnel of some sort going into the top of the cup so that the flies cannot escape but they can get in. You just simply place some sort of fruit to attract them in areas where fruit flies are abundant. When you are ready to feed, you can cover the top of the cup and place in the freezer to kill them.

 

The setup I have here is a very cheap homemade version that seems to work really well. You can experiment with various things to see what works. I just used a cup from McDonalds and a paper funnel that I taped together.

 

 

I placed this one by my compost bins which get a lot of attention from fruit flies. There are 25-30 flies in this one setup.

[AntsBC]

I will be trying this! I have heard fruit flies make great food for ants I just haven't gotten around to making one of these setups.  

[Barristan]

Wow well done my self made did not look as good, but I have my bought one
 
The one I bought looks like this:


 


The nice thing about it is that you can use the also as a cup and close it even without removing the funnel. So no flies will escape if shaking it too much or laying it into the freezer.

Edited by Barristan, July 6 2018 - 12:19 PM.

[BrianK]

Nice Barristan. Can I ask where you got that trap? Are you afraid of pesticides on them?

[Trythis22]

I saw fruit fly trap and thought that I should share what I'm doing. 

 

Farm

 

Holding Cell

 

Top view 

 

Basically what you do is attach the holding cell tube into the tube coming out of the farm, flip it upside down, tap the farm until you get the desired amount of flies into the holding cell, detach the two and put the cotton back on the tube coming out of the farm. I've had no escapees and this method will work for transporting hundreds to thousands of flies. If you pick up the holding cell and set it down, the impact is hard enough for all the flies to fall back down. About 10 seconds more time for you to put the cotton back in the tube. 

 

The holding cell was an old soap dispenser and the farm is a mason jar with the lid replaced with mesh, silicone and tubing. 3/4" inside diameter and 1" outside diameter on the large tube on the dispenser and 5/8" ID and 3/4" OD on the smaller tube on the mason jar so they fit together snugly. 

 

I'm currently letting this one, which is 1 out of 3, die out because I have no use for so many flies. They create over 500 flies per week and the inside is completely black due to being plastered with larvae, adult files and dead flies. It's too disgusting and embarrassing to post.  

 

EDIT: Interior/exterior diameter numbers are more clear.  

Edited by Trythis22, July 23 2018 - 4:10 PM.

[TKD102]

That looks really handy, I'll be trying that out soon for my colonies. 

[TKD102]

I found a version of this on thingiverse that's similar, but it's just a 3d printed lid. I thought I'd put it here to give more options on what people want to do.

 

https://www.thingive...om/thing:422267